The weather was perfect for football as the sun was setting over SHI Stadium. The athletic department brought back “Light Up The Knight,” something that I was skeptical about for a 6:30 PM kickoff, but it turned out to work well enough to serve its purpose. The crowd came pretty close to living up to its billing as a sellout, with a decent Oregon crowd making the trip or visiting SHI Stadium from the East Coast, with the visiting sideline showing a strong hue of green mixed in with some home fans.
But among the Rutgers faithful, the stadium was eerily quiet. The fans showed up, but nobody was really excited. Nobody was overly dreadful either, with the late kickoff and homecoming bringing a lot of the community together to celebrate everything Rutgers. The band, cheer, and dance teams put on their usual quality performances, while the student section showed up and showed out per usual. The home sideline was packed with the usual Rutgers die-hards on the right sideline, the ones who stay through every game, win or loss.
It was as if everyone in the crowd already knew what was coming, but were too invested in this team, the experience, and this school to admit it, so everyone was just sitting there waiting to see what the Scarlet Knights football team had to offer. We were too hopeful and prideful to admit that we knew better; perhaps some did not, and I highly doubt that even Oregon fans envisioned the complete and utter domination in which the Ducks defeated the Scarlet Knights last night.
We were all just hoping that this team would be able to put up a fight after three hard-fought, demoralizing, draining weeks of losses to “middle-tier” Big Ten teams. The team came out of the tunnel to cheers, while Oregon came out to the usual boos, although the jeers were for no other reason than to give a “nice Jersey welcome” this time around. Perhaps the home team should have received the booing instead.
After Rutgers forced and recovered a fumble, setting up the Scarlet Knights from Oregon’s 33-yard line, the offense went three-and-out, but Jai Patel tied his career-long with a 51-yard field goal. The sequence was the highlight of the night and momentarily brought life to SHI Stadium, which had just begun to come out of its shell as the team emerged from the tunnel and the pregame festivities generated some enthusiasm before kickoff.
However, that was to be short-lived, as Oregon took a 7-3 lead that it would not relinquish with a Noah Whittington 68-yard rushing touchdown. It was emblematic of how the rest of the game would unfold, with the #8 Ducks rebounding from their loss to the Hoosiers with a resounding 56-10 victory over the hapless Scarlet Knights. Here is my detailed analysis of the game.
Offense “Halts” Against Best Defense The Knights Have Seen
I would love to pretend that Oregon’s defense was not too much better than Washington, Minnesota, and certainly Iowa, and that maybe the Scarlet Knights just had an off night on that side of the ball, but not crediting the Ducks accordingly would be doing a major disservice to both teams.
They may have allowed 30 points to the Hoosiers, but they are still leagues better than anything that Rutgers has seen this season (Ohio State will be sure to change that). The usual quick start from Rutgers on offense was not present, with the special teams and defense stepping up (for once) to give RU the early 3-0 lead that seemed to evaporate the second the Ducks got the ball back.
Yes, Rutgers struggled mightily on offense, but Oregon consistently pressured Kaliakmanis, which resulted in Athan having his worst outing as a Scarlet Knight, going just 8 for 25 with 79 yards and two interceptions, one thrown to defensive back Aaron Flowers and the other batted and picked off by linebacker Blake Purchase. He was also sacked three times by the Ducks’ defense, posting a quarterback rating of just 11, which was by far the lowest of the season.
With NFL-level talent at wide receiver, Kaliakmanis was able to find KJ Duff three times for 41 yards and DT Sheffield three times for 26 yards, but he only completed two other passes, one to Ian Strong and one to tight end Kenny Fletcher, both for six yards.
The Scarlet Knights seemed to want to get Fletcher more involved on offense than usual, as not much else was working in the passing game. However, Fletcher was unable to haul in difficult passes from Kaliakmanis, who also overthrew DT Sheffield in one of the few chances for the Rutgers offense to produce a highlight in this game.
Sheffield had beaten the coverage and would have had an easy touchdown, but the pass was overthrown, just to be followed by another overthrow a few plays later. It was that kind of night for Rutgers on offense, which was still leaps and bounds ahead of the disgraceful performance on the other side of the ball.
In the run game, Ja’Shon Benjamin was the surprising leader, largely because he stayed in the game with the second-team offense and scored the Knights’ lone touchdown. Benjamin finished with 69 yards on 18 carries with a long of 19 yards, while Antwan Raymond also finished with 18 carries for 55 yards and a long of 10.
Raymond also lost a fumble to Oregon’s Theran Johnson, with Rutgers surprisingly pulling even in the turnover battle at two apiece, as Cam Miller intercepted Moore as the Ducks threatened for another score in the third quarter. However, as was par for the course, the offense went three-and-out and spotted the Ducks’ field position at their own 42, which Oregon needed just three plays to find the end zone to push the lead to 56-3.
Smith’s “Defense” Gives Up 750 Yards To High-Flying Ducks
If the offense was bad, the defense seemed to be ten times worse. Rutgers routinely gave up long plays in both the pass to run, as the Scarlet Knights were beaten on multiple long runs to the outside, as well as getting completely embarrassed through the air as they routinely missed assignments and left Ducks receivers wide open all game.
Dante Moore had all day to throw, while his receivers were getting wide open as they made a mockery of the already-porous Rutgers secondary, attempting all sorts of wide-open touchdown passes, which included a double-handoff flea-flicker that saw tight end Kenyon Sadiq make an acrobatic grab in the end zone with no Scarlet Knights in the vicinity. Sadiq was the leading receiver for the Ducks, with another diving touchdown catch preceding that one and 80 yards on just four catches.
Dakorien Moore hauled in a 34-yard pass over the middle for another Ducks touchdown, in which he was waiting for the football on the vertical route, while also securing another 30-plus yard catch for a total of 63 yards on two receptions. Dante Moore also found Oregon’s second tight end, Jamari Johnson, for a 56-yard catch and run down the left sideline. Once again, Johnson was left open and was already ahead of the poor coverage that was routinely displayed by the secondary. Four other Ducks had ten-plus yard catches, including running back Dierre Hill Jr. and backup receiver Jeremiah McClellan, who had two catches for 51 yards yesterday with a long of 35.
The run defense was no better, and in fact, may have been even worse. For all the improvement the Scarlet Knights showed on that side of the ball against Minnesota and Washington, it all went away against the Ducks. Noah Whittington took a pitch to the outside and did not look back for the Ducks’ opening 68-yard score, following it up with a 28-yard rushing touchdown later in the game and a resounding 125 yards on just 11 carries.
To spare readers from doing the math, Whittington averaged a whopping 11.4 yards per carry, with Jordon Davison following up a 67-yard run with a 20-yard touchdown. He had 100 yards of rushing on just three carries for an average of 33.3 yards per carry (yes, that is correct). Hill Jr., who has led the Ducks in rushing multiple times, had five carries for 62 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown (12.4 yards per carry), while Dante Moore took off for a 35-yard pickup of his own, which is exactly what the defense gave him in that situation. His other two carries went for 14 yards, giving him 16.3 yards per carry.
With the game so out of hand, both teams rolled out their second units for the fourth quarter, where backup quarterback Brock Thomas found McClellan for his 35-yard catch. Backup kicker Gage Hurych missed a 44-yarder that kept the score at 56-3.
Ben Black recovered a muffed punt, with Dakorien Moore fumbling a 47-yard boot from Jakob Anderson, which set up the Rutgers touchdown sequence. AJ Surace fed Benjamin on the drive that resumed at Oregon’s 30-yard line, with six straight handoffs, two incomplete passes, and then the seven-yard carry for Benjamin that provided the few Rutgers fans who stuck it out with something to cheer about. Oregon ran out the final 6:40 and got pretty deep into Scarlet Knights territory before Thomas mercifully kneeled out the Ducks’ bounce-back victory.
The 750 yards was the most allowed by a Power Four school this season, which included 415 rushing and 335 passing yards. For how silly the pass defense looked, allowing over 400 rushing yards is even more alarming, especially considering the team had seemed to at least show improvements in that facet of the game.
Oregon made Rutgers look like an FCS team with how much protection Moore had to make the easiest of throws to receivers who had badly beaten the coverage and gotten wide open for touchdown catches. Although NIL may not have been the reason why Rutgers lost the last three games, it certainly does not help when Oregon is on another planet athletically, which showed up on both sides of the ball, but especially on the defensive side. The scheming and poor coaching, however, had guys not getting set correctly, arguing about coverages, and routinely getting burned by the simplest offensive concepts.
Who Wants It More On Saturday: Rutgers Or Purdue?
Rutgers was a 17.5-point underdog against #8 Oregon, which seemed very generous, but it was hard to fathom that the Scarlet Knights would get completely dismantled. Not in 2025, not when the team had shown improvements to finally be considered among the middle of the conference, and not when Rutgers had gone bowling in back-to-back seasons. However, that is exactly what happened, particularly because of just how horrific the defense was.
However, the Scarlet Knights have a very realistic shot to win their next game, as they have opened as 2.5-point road favorites over Purdue next week. The Boilermakers share Rutgers’ 0-4 Big Ten record, with a nonconference loss to Notre Dame meaning that Purdue is 2-5 on the season. Despite showing life and significant improvement from last season, it has not won since defeating Ball State and Southern Illinois in the first two games of 2025.
The Scarlet Knights opened the season by scraping by against Ohio, which now has a 20-14 loss against Ball State, and defeating Miami (OH) and Norfolk State, before a heartbreaker against Iowa, and a downward trend that has seen the margin of defeat increase and the quality of play decrease each week. Meanwhile, Purdue lost by 16 to USC and Illinois, which have both been in and out of the rankings, seven to a 5-2 Minnesota team, and surprisingly, fell 19-0 to Northwestern.
With a tough November schedule that will see trips to Michigan and Washington and home games against #1 Ohio State and #3 Indiana, Rutgers is Purdue’s most likely shot for a conference win. The same can be said the other way around, with Illinois, Maryland, Ohio State, and Penn State due up for what looks like a “no-win November” for both programs. Although RU could potentially set up a miraculous bowl run by defeating Purdue, Maryland, and Penn State, the Terrapins and Nittany Lions still look light-years ahead of the Scarlet Knights.
This may very well be each team’s “Super Bowl,” and best (maybe even only shot) for a Big Ten win this season, so both programs would be wise to flush last week as quickly as possible and lay all the cards on the table for Saturday at Ross-Ade Stadium. History is on the Scarlet Knights’ side, as they have a 2-0 record, featuring a 14-12 win in Piscataway back in 2017 and a 37-30 win in 2020, when the teams last met in West Lafayette.
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